Page 143 - gullivers-travels

Another day, Glumdalclitch left me on a smooth grass-
plot to divert myself, while she walked at some distance
with her governess. In the meantime, there suddenly fell
such a violent shower of hail, that I was immediately by the
force of it, struck to the ground: and when I was down, the
hailstones gave me such cruel bangs all over the body, as
if I had been pelted with tennis-balls; however, I made a
shift to creep on all fours, and shelter myself, by lying flat on
my face, on the lee-side of a border of lemon-thyme, but so
bruised from head to foot, that I could not go abroad in ten
days. Neither is this at all to be wondered at, because nature,
in that country, observing the same proportion through all
her operations, a hailstone is near eighteen hundred times
as large as one in Europe; which I can assert upon expe-
rience, having been so curious as to weigh and measure
them.
But a more dangerous accident happened to me in the
same garden, when my little nurse, believing she had put
me in a secure place (which I often entreated her to do, that
I might enjoy my own thoughts,) and having left my box at
home, to avoid the trouble of carrying it, went to another
part of the garden with her governess and some ladies of
her acquaintance. While she was absent, and out of hearing,
a small white spaniel that belonged to one of the chief gar-
deners, having got by accident into the garden, happened
to range near the place where I lay: the dog, following the
scent, came directly up, and taking me in his mouth, ran
straight to his master wagging his tail, and set me gently
on the ground. By good fortune he had been so well taught,

1 Gulliver’s Travels